Athletes involved in sport activities that involve punching commonly wrap their hands and wrists. Hands and wrists are wrapped with a cloth strip or athletic tape and gauze. A secure wrap that surrounds the wrist, palm and base of the thumb serves to maintain both the alignment of joints and to compress soft tissues to help the hand withstand the impact of a punch. Loops through the fingers prevent the wrap from sliding during use.
The hand wrap protects against several common fractures and injuries. The portion of the wrap that surrounds the thumb prevents hyper extension of the thumb joint to prevent sprain or fracture. The portion of the wrap that surrounds the palm helps keep the metacarpal bones aligned and compressed so that impact is distributed among more than one metacarpal bone at one time.
The current method of wrapping an athlete's hands commonly involves a trainer and athlete often facing each other, each sitting backwards on a chair. With the chair backs facing the athlete rests his forearm on the upper edge of the chair backs. The trainer, typically must use tape to secure a towel to the back of a chair upon which an athlete's forearms will rest while the athlete's hands are wrapped. The towel does not provide a flat, stable surface and often shifts out of place altogether, thereby rendering the method futile. This method is time-consuming, unstable and inconvenient.
Thermoforming is a process of manufacture wherein a sheet of thermos-plastic material is heated to a temperature that renders the sheet pliable. A single-surface mold may be a positive, negative or combination of both forms. Most commonly the mold is a positive protrusion placed over a flat surface. The flat surface is permeable and vacuum pressure is applied to the surface beneath the mold. The pliable sheet is placed over the mold, vacuum pressure is applied and the plastic sheet is drawn over the mold. The plastic is cooled and trimmed to create a finished part. Because the mold is a single-surface mold, the portion of the mold that is in contact with the flat surface remains an opening in the finished hollow form.
Rotational molding involves a heated hollow mold, filled with thermos-plastic material. The mold and material is heated to a the melting point of the plastic material. The mold is rotated about two axes causing the liquid material to spread evenly about the walls of the mold. The rotational motion continues through the cooling process to ensure even wall thicknesses. Rotational molding is a relatively low cost process due to the low pressure, low temperatures and inexpensive mold and setup costs.